Tuesday, January 02, 2007

The Dubai Land Department’s land transactions witnessed an increase from Dh.15.334 billion to Dh.65.169billion, as per the figures revealed by the department. A big portion of the transactions were taken up by mortgages, thereby ending the year at Dh.40.58bn.

The cumulative transactions during 2006 increased by 462.5 percent, which is much higher than the level of 2004 which recorded Dh.11.587bn. A report on the real estate sector by EFG-Hermes, an investment bank, says that though the real estate market in Dubai has become more fragmented with a large number of developers having divested most of their land banks to private developers, more than fifty percent of the land bank of Dubai is still in the hands of major players like Nakheel and Dubai Properties.

The year 2006 witnessed cash sales of 2613, donations of property and land being 369 and 1960 mortgage transactions. According to the land department reports, the cash sales were spread across 102 districts in Dubai. The open spaces sales underwent 2,206 transactions that involved 3.31 million sq m with a total of Dh.45.68bn., while the sale of developed land comprised of 2.15 sq m. Emirates Hills Second is reported as the top selling district, which comprised of 7.18 percent of the total sales of land with an average price of approximately Dh.1,016.87 per sq.ft. Emirates Hill Second was also the top most in the list of areas that witnessed the largest number of deals with as many as 403 sales being registered. This was followed by Marsa Dubai, with 5.32 percent.